This invention relates to a coffee-type beverage and more particularly to a granular product closely resembling roast and ground coffee of American ground style for use in brewing a coffee tasting beverage, and to a method of forming such product.
The increased cost of coffee in recent times has become a financial burden for coffee drinkers and those institutional users such as stores, restaurants and office coffee service groups. There is a need for an economical coffee product at prices only a fraction of the present prices.
Prior art emphasizes use of coffee substitutes such as roasted garbanzo beans, barley, chicory or wheat, alone or as additions to coffee. The mixed components tend to separate in the can during transport. Accordingly, there is a lack of uniformity in the taste of the beverage brewed from commercially available coffee with substitutes. Also, these substitutes usually have only marginal appearance of real roast and ground coffee.
Some recent commercial efforts involve reduction of roast coffee particle size to increase extraction of solubles during brewing. This general practice has been known and practiced for many years in Europe and Asia where coffee drinkes do not object to a dark beverage containing suspended particles. In America, cultural factors and habits of coffee drinkers cause a definite preference for a clear beverage brewed from coarse roast granules. Further,, extraction from a fine roast coffee powder is actually not nearly effective as might be theoretically predicted because of poor fluid flow through the particles with resulting channeling type flow or the like, preventing optimum extraction.